Suspension Caravan axle load rating

[Where to next]

I have had a look through the forum but was not able to find anything directly on this topic. I have a few pieces of information that may be of interest and some questions to go with it.

To give the background......

I have an expanda 21.64 (Dec 2014) touring model which needed to be raised as it is too low. Looked at all the different options, underling etc. As I have an annex I wanted to raise the van about 50mm without any alteration work to the chassis or the springs. In the end decided to have the axles changed from the drop axle to a straight axle. I dropped the caravan off to yard today to get the axles changed over. A couple of hours later they rang me and informed me that the current axles are a type that would normally be on an off-road van. Has anyone come across this before or is it unique? Bad news is as I was not aware of this, I had them order in the wrong axles, they now need to order in new ones. Fair chance I will have to pay for a pair axles that I can't use as well. Anyway, the good news is as a result of this the current max. weight rating of the van can be increased by 200kg's if I get the compliance plate changed. Has anyone done this before? How hard was it to get done and how did you go about it?

Any feedback with anything I have noted above would be appreciated.

 

[Crusty181]

I have had a look through the forum but was not able to find anything directly on this topic. I have a few pieces of information that may be of interest and some questions to go with it.

To give the background......

I have an expanda 21.64 (Dec 2014) touring model which needed to be raised as it is too low. Looked at all the different options, underling etc. As I have an annex I wanted to raise the van about 50mm without any alteration work to the chassis or the springs. In the end decided to have the axles changed from the drop axle to a straight axle. I dropped the caravan off to yard today to get the axles changed over. A couple of hours later they rang me and informed me that the current axles are a type that would normally be on an off-road van. Has anyone come across this before or is it unique? Bad news is as I was not aware of this, I had them order in the wrong axles, they now need to order in new ones. Fair chance I will have to pay for a pair axles that I can't use as well. Anyway, the good news is as a result of this the current max. weight rating of the van can be increased by 200kg's if I get the compliance plate changed. Has anyone done this before? How hard was it to get done and how did you go about it?

Any feedback with anything I have noted above would be appreciated.

Ive got a 2014 20.63.1OB and as part the purchase I requested the ATM on my van be increased 100kg above the plated ATM, to the limit of my car, which they did that without question. When I took it back for some warranty work I requested the plated ball weight be increase ,which they also did without any issues.

 

[achjimmy]

I have had the plate changed as well. In your case it maybe an issue that Jayco will not because it's not there axle set? But you can try them first. Make sure the company give you paperwork to reflect the axles and their load reading that they fitted to your van. To my knowledge the only diff between on road and off road would be the backing plates for the brakes I think?

 

[Where to next]

To my knowledge the only diff between on road and off road would be the backing plates for the brakes I think?

If I understood what explained to me correctly, the differerence between the off-road axle and the standard axle is the size of the off-road axle is 50mm square, and the standard is 45mm square. Also the hub where the brake drums connect to on the off-road type have the inner bearing and the outer bearing the same larger bearing size, whereas the standard axle has the larger inner bearing and the outer bearing is smaller.

 

[achjimmy]

Ofcourse You are correct the bearing size , they are totally different doh!

But the axle size is to do with the overall loading on road can have 50mm sq etc most common is 45mm and 50mm sq but there is even 75mm iirc

 

[Drover]

The mob that are doing the work should have checked the bearings on your rig so they could order the correct axle to match, not all tourers come with the smaller bearings mine has a 50 mm axle but off road hubs and 12" drums, the 14ft tourers all had a straight axle as far as I know.
50mm axles can be ordered with the stub size to match the hub, the only way to still use the axle would be to get new hubs which may mean bigger drums also.